LEWISTON – If Lewiston-Auburn wants artists to relocate in the downtown, the city needs to give them a cheap place to work and leave them alone.

Don’t form a committee, hold a conference or issue a report, says Raphael Di Luzio, an assistant professor of New Media and Art at the University of Maine.

“They’d think that’s weird and go somewhere else,” Di Luzio said. “I know. I’m an artist.”

That doesn’t mean leaders should stop thinking, the California native told attendees Thursday at the Great Falls Forum.

However, leaders must leave their bureaucratic comfort zone. That’s where the best stuff comes from, Di Luzio said.

In fact, for the state’s economy to thrive, Mainers must rethink and retool. They must embrace technology and a shift in the economy, the artist said. The alternative is Maine’s decline as the world continues to change.

“We’ve been worried about small, petty things,” said Di Luzio, citing recent referendum questions on taxes and bear hunting.

“We must look at what we need to survive as a species in this century,” said the professor, whose lecture was titled, “Imagine Maine.”

Accompanied by DVD images of the state, Di Luzio talked about transportation, energy and communication across the state.

If Maine could become a center of development in any of those areas, it would thrive. It can no longer rely on the extraction of natural resources such as timber or fish to support families.

“Besides blueberries, what do we export?” he asked. “I think we have to change the way we think.”

He highlighted renewable energy, such as wind and biomass. Transportation changes might include the investigation of hydrogen-fueled cars and the addition of light rail to link towns from Portland to Bangor.

Costs for things such as trains are investments that a state that taxes so much ought to afford, he said.

“I pay $3,000 a year in taxes. I want a train,” joked Di Luzio.

Practically, such moves could strengthen the state. Leaders need to be smarter, though.

Just as they can’t plan for artist colonies, as many cities have tried, they can plan for innovation.

“We have to think of a new way to do it,” he said.

One example is California’s recent decision to invest billions of dollars in stem-cell research.

“Scientists will be flocking to California because that’s where all the research will be,” Di Luzio said. Something similar could happen here.

“We’ve pioneered things before in Maine,” Di Luzio said. “This is not unimaginable.”